Volume 23: Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Post-COVID Recovery towards a Better Future: Part VI

Performance evaluation of phase change materials for active indoor thermal environment construction in winter Man Fan, Hanxiao Suo, Han Li, Wandong Zheng, Xiangfei Kong, Lu Wang

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCMs) own huge latent heat to regulate the thermal energy storage of building envelope and maintain comfortable indoor temperature range. While there were various kinds of PCMs, of which thermophysical properties were different, making it difficult to prepare and select the most suitable PCM. In this study, three fatty acids and four polyols were used to prepare the binary composite PCM, and four composite materials were preliminarily selected based on the indoor temperature required by ASHRAE Standard. The weight of melting temperature, latent heat, thermal conductivity, density and specific heat capacity were quantified with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The expected ranking of PCMs was given through subjective weight distribution and consistency test, and the optimal PCM for active indoor thermal environment construction in winter was identified.

Keywords Phase change material, analytic hierarchy process, optimal material, thermal environment construction